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Saturday, May 12, 2012

When it comes to watch tons of interesting user generated videos, YouTube is perhaps the biggest and the best online video streaming site present today. YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view (flash) videos. And the fact that it is owned and run by Google guarantees that the videos that you are watching are pretty fast and stream reliably because they are actually hosted on one of those fast servers (data centers) owned and maintained by Google.

Why to download YouTube videos when you can watch them online? Well, you can’t be online all the time, and despite the majority of YouTube videos being nut-shots and Lady Gaga parodies, there is a lot of great content that you might want to download and watch offline. Whether you want to watch YouTube video on your iPod while working out, insert it into a PowerPoint presentation to add some spice, or simply download a video before it’s removed, it’s quite essential to know how to download, convert, and play YouTube videos. Here are top 3 great ways/methods to download and convert YouTube videos for entertainment, fun and work.

There are some programs and browser extensions to do this, but we’ve found that the easiest and quickest methods in this post today. These tools and methods will let you download standard quality and high-definition YouTube movies as MP4 video and MP3 audio files.

1. (‘Kiss‘) ‘Save’ Your YouTube Video URL

Earlier called kissyoutube.com, saveyoutube.com is perhaps the most popular and easiest way to save any YouTube video to your local computer. To download a YouTube video just go to saveyoutube.com, enter the youtube video URL to the textbox, hit enter, select your download option (from various file formats like flv, mp4, mp3 etc) and that’s it.

Alternately, you just need to add the word ‘save’ to the YouTube video URL and then when you press enter in your browser’s address bar it directs you to their website where you can download it as a .flv video or convert it other formats as well.

Apart from this, they have also the options to search and loop YouTube videos just by entering the YouTube URL. One thing worth keeping in mind is that this online converter requires your browser to be java enabled. So you may want to try in a java-friendly browser like Google Chrome or Safari.

2. Download Youtube Video as MP3 Audio

Would you rather want to just download the Audio in MP3 format from a YouTube videos? Though there are tons of online as well as desktop applications to do this, Listen to YouTube is a great free online tool that lets you to convert YouTube videos to mp3 format. This is an easy process and only requires you to paste a link into a field. You can choose standard or high quality output.

If you are feeling lazy then simply pick any Youtube video URL and add After a few minutes, the process will finish and you will be able to download your new mp3 file. There is no limit to how many downloads you can make with this wonderful free service.

You just put in the Youtube URL and listentoyoutube.com spits out an mp3 for you to download. How cool is that?

3. For Ubuntu (Linux) Users

If you use Ubuntu (Linux), it is pretty simple. Even though you might not realize, in Linux a copy of every Youtube video automatically gets saved in the /tmp folder. So just copy it from your temp folder. To make it even easier, you can create a one-click bookmark to my .temp folder, in Ubuntu.

Disclaimer

We are not encouraging anybody to use Youtube only for downloading videos and songs that could be purchased on Amazon, iTunes, Beatport, or any other digital outlet. These tools are only for video clips and songs that were nowhere to be found.

Moreover, according to the YouTube Terms of Service, downloading videos is not allowed. Hence, please use these tools cautiously and support your favorite artists by purchasing genuine copies of videos and music online. Online streaming services such as YouTube are one of the most popular ways to view videos. But, if you are someone looking to join a movie streaming service to watch all your favorite movies and TV series, then why not check out LOVEFiLM vs Netflix!

When you want a website that is attractive, accessible and functional, one road to take is to hire a professional web designer. Web designers are experts in their field and offer professional websites that leave a positive impact on visitors. In order to do that, you must know how to select the best web designer to hire. Plenty of businesses and organizations rely on professional web designers to build their sites. It is because they know what are the benefits of a professional web design. However, there are some guidelines to creating a professional-looking website that you can follow in order to build one on your own. Let’s take a close look at those guidelines to see if we can turn you into a web designer.

This post was written by Akesh Gupta, president of Light Speed Solutions. Light Speed Solutions is a custom software development company specializing in mobile application development and web design services.

Start with Navigation

Rule number one for professional web design is to create an easy navigation. Your navigation needs to be both logical and intuitive so that visitors can freely explore the pages of the site without any confusion or misdirection. Your goal is for visitors to view as many pages as possible. This means that it is your first priority to show them exactly how to do so. The key to a great navigation is meticulous planning. If you are having a hard time when it comes to designing or planning the navigation element in your website, be sure to check our article first about tips for designing the best website navigation bar.

First, decide on the number of main pages you want the site to contain. Keep in mind that these main pages are best displayed within the top navigation. Again, remember to think logically and intuitively. Next, decide how you want to organize the information on the site. One of the tricks of the trade is to start planning on a piece of paper. Visual charts and illustrations are great tools in helping you create a usable and highly navigational website.

Think of your site navigation as a road map that starts out generic and gets further into detail as you move along. Guide the visitor from the main pages deeper into your site towards the rest of the content. Also, remember to make it easy for the visitor to return back to the home page. No matter what page the visitor is on, he or she needs an easy way to get back to the heart of your website.

Create Content

Once your navigation is ready, the next element to think about is content. Visitors who log on to your website want to know that it provides and interesting and valuable source of information for the particular topic you are writing about. The role of interesting content is to help engage your visitors while a sense of value will keep them coming back for more. One important thing to keep in mind is that people appreciate both accuracy and completeness. For a professional web design, be sure to post relevant content that matches the search requests.

Test the Site

Now that you have the content together, the next step is to test the website. Meticulous testing can turn a simple website into a professional one although the process is often a time-consuming and uphill battle. Many web designers learn the hard way that there are about a hundred different browsers that people use to view content online. Understand that your website should be designed to function properly in the most widely-used browsers. Not all users know how to upgrade their browsers, so you need to be prepared for anything and everything.

Optimize Photos

The speed in which the pages on your site load is important. Pages that load quickly benefit both the user, in terms of convenience, as well as the search engines in terms of optimization. One element of web design that influences site speed is pictures. Optimize your photos to keep them from slowing down the upload speed of the page. As a rule of thumb, keep photos as small as possible without sacrificing on quality.

Colored Links

Simplify the navigation process with colored links. Make sure that links change colors after a user clicks on them to clarify browsing history. Colored links also help the user figure out their current location on the site. Also, always ensure that the links throughout the site are not broken. This can be a part of the testing phase or as its own entity before launch.

One Final Thought

Obviously, professional web design involves a long, meticulous and time-consuming process. Professional web design requires good planning, expertise and complete dedication. While hiring a professional web designer is a simple way to ensure a successful website, understand that it is possible to build a professional-looking website without the help of an expert. This guideline should help you better understand the steps to take towards professional web design.

Determining the core color for a web project could be easy but finding the right alternatives to match the core can sometimes be difficult. That’s where the color tools play its roles. Color tools help you determine matching color or even suggest sets of matching color palette when you are totally clueless.

Amongst are some of the best color tools web service on the internet any web designers should bookmark, or at least know. Full list after jump.

When it comes to GUI and navigation design, we need our buttons to be relatively small, simple and yet descriptive. There is no room for text or complex design and that’s exactly where mini icon comes in. These small little icons control the flow, ease the navigation and increase better user experience and they are designers’ favorites.

Today we bring all of them to you so you don’t have to search the Internet high and low to look for them. Here’s a collection of 50 excellent free mini icon sets that will come in handy in your future project. Start scrolling and find your favorite icon set, or better, bookmark this page.